[1] It contains the chief charters granted to the city, accounts of its customs, and notes on a variety of topics chiefly but not entirely connected with commerce.
Thomas Hearne called it a chronicle; but its only claim to that title rests on its opening section, which gives, with occasional historical notes, a list of the names of the 'Balyfs, Gustos, Mayers, and Sherefs' of London between 1189 and 1502.
No earlier version of the ballad is known, and according to Capel, Warton, Douce, and Collier, it is probable that it had been composed only a few years before Arnold transcribed and printed it.
Its authorship is unknown; but Douce assumes that it was translated from an old German ballad by some Englishman whom Arnold met at Antwerp.
It was frequently reprinted separately in the sixteenth century, and enjoyed very great popularity for many years; interest in it was revived by its republication in the 'Muse's Mercury' for June 1707,[2] where it was first seen by Matthew Prior, who paraphrased it in his 'Henry and Emma' about 1718.
A second edition, in which the list of the mayors and sheriffs is brought down to 1520 — doubtless the date of publication — is ascribed by typographical experts to Peter Treveris, the first printer who set up a press at Southwark.